Maximizing Cap Youth Talent

Team: 2022-23 Pittsburgh Penguins

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 2, 2022

Published: Jun. 2, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Step 1: Move Teddy up to 3C and shift Carter out to RW. I think this will allow Carter to stay fresh longer into the season.
Step 2: Move Marcus Petterson at the draft for a pick. I picked Detroit since I've seen that a bit on here but any team will do. Picks only though is key.
Step 3: Resign EROD to $1.5M/3 yrs. Create term for him but not a huge increase to Cap for us. Slot him as the 4C as he seems to be more a Center fit.
Step 4: Resign Letang. Not as much to choose from on the UFA D market and Letang is more crucial to us than Geno. Add a 5th year and keep term at 7.5M.
Step 5: Sign POJ to a one-way deal for $850K...he needs to stay in NHL.
Step 6: Sign a backup that can handle 1B duties. For emotion sake I will sign MAF for 2yrs @ $2M.
Step 7: Rebuild a second line. First sign Rakell to $4M/5 year. Same story here with one more year of term for little less Cap.
Step 8: Sign either Malkin or go hunting for UFA C. For this exercise I will resign Malkin for $6.5 for 4 years. If we don't sign Malkin I'd like to see Kadri here.
Step 9: Since for this exercise we kept Malkin we need to add some foward with grit/skill. This will be our third piece to line 2. Now depending if we can move on from McGinn or Zucker would determine who we can land. For this exercise I used $3M and signed Vatrano.
If we move McGinn - We sit at $6.5M and I think we land either Domi or Copp.
If we move Zucker - We would be at $9M and my take here would be Forsberg or Gaudreau.
If we are able to move Zucker or McGinn it would allow an AHL forward to move into 4th line slot and increase overall talent on line 2.

We shall see what eventually happens but let's discuss in the comments.